Having decades of experience and appropriate internal market, Iran's helicopter industry is one of the most attractive sections for investment at national level, because of providing employment and development for other industries. The main aim of this study is to identify and analyze factors affecting the formation and development of innovative civil helicopter industrial cluster in Iran. By reviewing the literature of industrial clusters and sectoral innovation system, we categorize the affecting factors in a primary model, and then by conducting interviews with 20 science and technology policy-makers and helicopter industry experts, we localize and revise the model. The revised model is tested by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis methods through a questionnaire answered by a statistical population of 404. The results show that economy- and market-related factors, scientific and technological factors, and political and human factors affect the formation and development of civil helicopter industry cluster of Iran.